On 15 June in Atlanta, Vozinha held Cape Verde to a 0-0 draw against Spain. At 40, the keeper, then at Chaves in Portugal’s second division, watched his Instagram go from 56,000 to a million followers in one evening. Now at Colo-Colo in Chile, he’s one of ten candidates for Best Goalkeeper at the 2026 Ballon d’Or, in London.
“I’ve lost my peace and quiet,” he told The Observer. Then he added: “Now, when I go out, when I go to a restaurant, there’s always someone who wants a photo with me or asks for an autograph.”
Freddy read that on Monday, between the league table and his team-sheet folder.
Right, tactically, a 0-0 against Spain, that’s a well-organised low block. I run that on Tuesday. When we’ve got eleven, that is. My keeper kept three clean sheets last year, one of them on a slope, into the wind. At the chip van, they asked him if he wanted mayo. That’s it. A flat pitch away, mind you.
Cape Verde’s run ended in the last 16 against Argentina, 2-3 after extra time. Vozinha has 93 caps.
And he settled it, again to The Observer: “If I were offered the choice between the life I have today and the one I had before, I’d choose the one from before.” During the World Cup, he accepted only one endorsement, with UFL Mobile, out of the many offers he received.
One single endorsement, now that’s discipline. We’ve got a single sponsor too: the clubhouse bar. It funds the transfer window, a ball and a set of bibs. And nobody films me when I’m putting the cones away. The level in the third provincial division (Belgium’s Sunday amateur leagues) has gone way up, people don’t realise, but the quiet, that’s stayed exactly the same.
It’s true, we checked: RMC Sport.
